Gardening icon Alan Titchmarsh has made a major life move in the last year – and admits “I can’t look back”.
The former Gardeners’ World host, 77, has been married to wife Alison for an impressive 51 years. The couple have two grown-up daughters, Polly and Camilla, who have flown the nest.
Alan and Alison subsequently made the decision that many people have to battle with when they reach a certain stage of their life – whether to downsize or not.
They decided to sell their Grade II listed farmhouse in Hampshire, where they had lived since 2002, to move into a bungalow in Surrey. The sale finally went through earlier this month.
Leaving the house also meant giving up something else Alan had worked on tirelessly for almost a quarter of a century – his garden.
Alan and his wife Alison downsized to a bungalow -Credit:Surrey Advertiser – Grahame Larter
While he is trying not to look back, he became emotional when considering how much time, effort and love he had put into his creation.
Alan told The Times: “I love that garden more than I’ve loved anything I’ve ever made. I’ve given it a quarter of a century of love and care.
“But when we hand over the key and close the gate, I’m not looking back. I can’t.”
Alan went on to say that the move from Hampshire has been “an enormous wrench”. He continued: “It’s a pretty big number and in another 10 years’ time I probably would have found where we were too much for one man.
“Four and a half acres of busy garden – and yes, I had help but help costs money.”
Alan and Alison initially put the house on the market for £3.95million before reducing it to £3.5m. Their new single-storey property cost £2.6m.
Unlike his garden in Hampshire, the gardener’s new garden in his more modest surroundings is strictly off limits to TV cameras.
Alan Titchmarsh -Credit:Getty Images
Alan, who also presented garden makeover show Ground Force and currently hosts Love Your Garden, admits that despite downsizing, he and Alison are yet to slow down.
This is despite promising each other that they would take things a little bit easier. They said they were going to start taking Mondays and Fridays off which he admits “is not really working”.
The TV presenter concedes he has no desire to retire because he does a job that people retire to spend more time doing.
Alongside his work on Love Your Weekend, Alan presents on Classic FM on Saturday afternoons and writes murder mystery novels. His YouTube channel, Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh, has proved a huge hit with 167,000 subscribers to date.
Catch Alan on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV from 9.30am to 11.30am on Sunday (June 21). Guests include comedian Omid Djalili and political journalist Robert Peston.